Peter Jackson

Nicolas Cage in a Lord of the Rings film? It almost happened, if you can believe that. Cage was offered the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson's trilogy but eventually turned it down. He would later explain, “[It] shot for a great quantity of time. I had family obligations, so I’m g…

Today in “surely you jest” news, ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ franchise director Peter Jackson has officially revealed where he stands on film franchises, blockbusters, and superhero movies. Although he’s been behind the wheel of two wildly su…

There seem to be two paths for monumentally popular pieces of art and entertainment once the initial excitement around them begins to wear off. Either they become a cultural touchstone, and become a part of the fabric of everyday communication, or they become a footnote, a piece of trivia relevant o…

Having gone on an unexpected journey and endured the desolation of Smaug, Peter Jackson’s bloated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ finally comes to ‘The Battle of the Five Armies,’ which is less of a climax to this trilogy than a distended epilogu…

Before interviewing Lee Pace—who returns to Middle-earth as the Elvenking, Thranduil, in the upcoming ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’—I conducted a completely scientific poll (it was not scientific at all, I randomly asked my friends), asking “Where do …

Over the last couple of days, rumors have been swirling that the folks at Warner Bros. have offered Christopher Nolan the director’s chair for the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel ‘Ready Player One.’ While it seems pretty unlikely that Nolan would take the job, a few mo…

Yes, it’s easy to decry the permeation of film marketing and our obsession with trailers and posters and previews, but let’s just be honest with ourselves here: The ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ trailer is going to an event that rivals the release of most movies. Think b…

The final 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' trailer has arrived and, well, it looks like another 'Hobbit' movie. If your faith in director Peter Jackson's vision of Middle-Earth remains unshaken, prepare to get excited. If the previous two films have muted your exc…

Warner Bros. continues to tout 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' as the defining chapter of the middle earth saga, and the most epic installment yet. How epic? Well, it apparently culminates with a 45-minute battle sequence featuring dwarves and orcs and elves and all their vario…

Back in 2012, some of the cast members from the 'Hobbit' films appeared in an in-flight safety video for Air New Zealand titled "An Unexpected Safety Briefing," and to coincide with the upcoming sequel 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,' they've made a dif…